Patterico's Pontifications

8/5/2006

Reuters Photo of Beirut Doctored to Increase Smoke

Filed under: General,Media Bias,War — Patterico @ 8:06 pm



Reuters has published a photo of fires in Beirut that appears to have been doctored by a crude photoshopping, to make it appear that there is more smoke than there really was. Photoshop expert Allah has details, as do Charles Johnson, Ace, and Left and Right (which has a nice animated graphic).

UPDATE: Reuters admits it and pulls the photo.

17 Responses to “Reuters Photo of Beirut Doctored to Increase Smoke”

  1. That’s why they are called al Reuters. There is a long history of fake photos in the middle east. many of them are probably due to the wire servies hiring local stringers who have questionable loyalties. There have been numerous instances of even senior newsmen spreading propaganda. That happened in Iraq when CNN admitted concealing anti-Saddam stories. It also happened with Hezbollah recently.

    Mike K (416363)

  2. Not surprising to see this. Perhaps objectivity is a concept foreign to Reuters, as well as the notion that they are there to, gee, report the facts.

    What boggles the mind is that anyone with training in this area can see immediately that something is not quite right with the photograph. How did it ever get published? Astounding.

    Eric (9c67f7)

  3. Not just smoke–The photoshopping makes the area seem more densely populated than it is.

    The photographer was part of the photog gaggle at Qana.

    clarice (c49871)

  4. According to Ynet News, Reuters has admitted the photo is doctored:

    http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3286966,00.html

    This doctored photo was propaganda during wartime. That means that the photographer is working for Hizbollah, either directly or indirectly.

    Gotta Know (f41eca)

  5. Holocaust denier David Irving once proved that the smoke above the crematoria in a photo of Auschwitz had been added to provide visual impact. Does that prove nothing ever happened?

    What are we arguing here? That a stupid photojournalist’s trickery washes away the damge in Qan and south Beirut?

    But by all means, go ahead. I hear Irving would appreciate a bunkmate.

    ats (7101ca)

  6. We’re arguing that it doesn’t serve the interest of truth to manufacture evidence of what’s happening in this conflict. That should be obvious.

    So, Irving proved what? How? To whose satisfaction? And that related to this how?

    Pablo (08e1e8)

  7. Pablo, in answer to your questions:

    His mental instability, by making stuff up, his own, “ats” is also off his rocker.

    Pixy Misa (d8469f)

  8. Does “ats” work for Reuters? Somebody there sent a death threat to Johnson at LGF. Maybe you should check ats’s IP address.

    Mike K (416363)

  9. Actually, I’d like to think we are arguing that a news organization should not be in the business of either doctoring or accepting doctored photos. If credibility is the coin of the realm, Reuters is coming up a few cents short these days.

    I just found it amazing that any editor could have looked at this photo and decided to publish it. I will not go into the motivations of the publisher in doing so, because I obviously do not know them firsthand. I do see that Reuters did run a kill on the picture and explained why it was being pulled.

    Having said this, I do think it fair to question what other stories and pictures provided by Reuters stringers have been similarly doctored/punched up.

    Eric (9c67f7)

  10. Anybody here remember a certain GI Joe doll that AP “mistook” for a “real” soldier captured by the terrorists?

    http://wizbangblog.com/2005/02/01/terrorists-claim-to-hold-captured-us-soldier.php

    Either these people are so incredibly stupid as to NEVER learn from their mistakes (cause they keep making the same ones) or there is something infinately more bizaare going on here! I know if I was a news photographer, I would be extra cautious in dealing with news agencies who openly sanction “photo editing”, or “photo selection” for purposes of dramatization. There should NEVER be such a case as an improperly edited photo! ANY edited photo should immediately rejected and the photographer fired! But, let’s face it…we’re talking about REPUTABLE PHOTOGRAPHERS AND REPUTABLE NEWS AGENCIES HERE… neither of which I believe we have in this case.

    Unbelievable!

    Carol

    Carol Johnson (96c3b4)

  11. There is a long history of hoaxes perpetrated by stringers hired by MSM editors. Here is one and there are others, mostly accepted by European papers , but this one made the NY Times. The Haditha hoax photo is another example. The London Times had the fake photo on its front page. Anything to trash the old USA.

    I have thought for years that, if we and the Brits had stayed out of World War I, the second Franco-Prussian War would have had fewer consequences. The worst of the hoaxes seem to be perpetrated by our erstwhile allies.

    Mike K (416363)

  12. As of 12:20 EST, the photo has not been pulled from Yahoo News. Here is the link:

    http://news.yahoo.com/photo/060805/ids_photos_ts/r3101797657.jpg

    If you want to take a few minutes to let Yahoo know what you think about that:

    http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/news/beta/beta-19.html

    You then click on the “submission form” link.

    Gotta Know (f41eca)

  13. I consider this solid evidence that the media – particularly the ‘world’ media, but certainly including the American media – learned absolutely nothing from Rathergate.

    Having said that, I make the following predictions:

    1) (in the short term) If the media discuss this latest scandal at all they will attempt to dismiss it in almost exactly the same terms as were used to defend the Rathergate Memos – i.e. ‘it doesn’t matter if this data was faked, because it is still substantially true’. They won’t understand – or won’t admit to understanding – what the fuss is about and why we can’t concentrate on the ‘real’ story.

    2) The 2008 election, and very probably the 2006 as well, will see sizable ‘Rathergate’ style media scandals, aimed at Conservative candidates. They will involve faked ‘evidence’ which, while superficially plausible, would not fool an even slightly experienced observer for one minute, demonstrating that the media did not conduct anything like due diligence.

    3) The media, and the political Left will whine about the consequences of ‘2’ above for a minimum of two years, viewing the whole thing as some kind of sinister Right Wing Conspiracy.

    C. S. P. Schofield (c1cf21)

  14. […] Me figuro que se habrán enterado por LGF, Barcepundit, Bilbaopundit, Desde Sefarad, Pajamas Media, Ace of Spades, Honest Reporting, The Jawa Report, Blinq, Riehl World View, Flopping Aces, Gateway Pundit, Jihad Watch, Ed Driscoll.com, A Blog For All, Samizdata.net, EU Referendum, WILLisms.com, NewsBusters.org, Captain’s Quarters, The Muqata جÙ, RightWinged.com, Judeoscope, Outside The Beltway, Jay Currie, Atlas Shrugs, The Corner, Power Line, Secular Blasphemy, Macsmind, Daimnation!, Israel Matzav, Patterico’s Pontifications, Michelle Malkin, Noticias de Eurabia, y otras bitácoras que me dejo en el tintero, a Reuters le ha dado por realizar periodismo “creativo” con el caso de Israel. No es que sea la primera vez pero esta vez su manipulación con el Photoshop ha sido demasiado evidente. […]

    Ajopringue » Blog Archive » Reuters productions (adec8c)

  15. […] LGF, Barcepundit, Bilbaopundit, Desde Sefarad, Pajamas Media, Ace of Spades, Honest Reporting, The Jawa Report, Blinq, Riehl World View, Flopping Aces, Gateway Pundit, Jihad Watch, Ed Driscoll.com, A Blog For All, Samizdata.net, EU Referendum, WILLisms.com, NewsBusters.org, Captain’s Quarters, The Muqata جÙ, RightWinged.com, Judeoscope, Outside The Beltway, Jay Currie, Atlas Shrugs, The Corner, Power Line, Secular Blasphemy, Macsmind, Daimnation!, Israel Matzav, Patterico’s Pontifications, Michelle Malkin, Noticias de Eurabia. […]

    Crónicas del mundo libre » Adobe Reuters System (a4e41b)

  16. Digital News Photo Manipulation…

    A photo stringer for Reuters in Lebanon, named Adnan Hajj, embarrassed the news service by faking a photograph. I assume that substantially all news photos today are taken by digital cameras. I remember reading in my manuals for my Canon…

    Right on the Left Beach (72c8fd)

  17. […] But I blame former Reuters photographer Adnan Hajj, who provided Ace with the incentive to out himself, by altering photos of the Israel-Hezbollah conflict to make Israel’s actions appear more extreme than they were in reality. As I reported on Saturday, Ace was one of the first bloggers in on the action, along with Charles Johnson, Allah, and a blog called Left and Right. (My Pet Jawa is getting in on the act with some good work as well.) […]

    Patterico’s Pontifications » Adnan Hajj Outs Ace of Spades (421107)


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